Western Attitudes toward Death: From the Middle Ages to the Present (The Johns Hopkins Symposia in Comparative History) [Paperback]

Philippe Ariès (Author), Patricia Ranum (Translator)

Book Description

Series: The Johns Hopkins Symposia in Comparative History | Publication Date: August 1, 1975

"AriA]s traces Western man's attitudes toward mortality from the early medieval conception of death as the familiar collective destiny of the human race to the modern tendency, so pronounced in industrial societies, to hide death as if it were an embarrassing family secret." -- Newsweek

Editorial Reviews

Review

Ariès traces Western man's attitudes toward mortality from the early medieval conception of death as the familiar collective destiny of the human race to the modern tendency, so pronounced in industrial societies, to hide death as if it were an embarrassing family secret.

(Newsweek 1974)

An astounding story, told with the incisiveness and mastery characteristic of Ariès's work.

(Robert Darnton New York Review of Books )

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (August 1, 1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801817625
• ISBN-13: 978-0801817625
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > History > Europe > Portugal
  • #49 in Books > History > Europe > Spain

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Different Perspective of History, July 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Western Attitudes toward Death: From the Middle Ages to the Present (The Johns Hopkins Symposia in Comparative History) (Paperback)

I initially started reading this for a "Sex and Death" class I took at school. Amazingly, "Western Attitudes Towards Death" has been one of the most inciteful books I've ever read. Aries makes it interesting to look at death in a historical aspect. For me, it was most interesting in the fact that you can see how people lived during a specific time period by studying how they viewed death. The parallels between life and death in EVERY society has become astonishingly clear to me. It's short reading...definately in a day...and well worth the time.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a conspiracy of silence, March 24, 2005

By 

a pilgrim revolutionary "lost in durham" (somewhere between layovers) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Western Attitudes toward Death: From the Middle Ages to the Present (The Johns Hopkins Symposia in Comparative History) (Paperback)

i had a certain agenda in reading this book . . . there is a conspiracy of silence regarding death in america/europe.
aries takes the reader on a morbid but a fascinating journey through western history of death. the conclusion is that death has become the "new pornography" (quoting gorer) in a modern/enlightenment based societies. death is the great scandal in the western culture where everything is, or at least hoped to be in the future, controlled by the development of science. but death lies beyond that hope. at least that's my take on it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dead On, October 8, 2009

By 

Paul A. Nelson (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Western Attitudes toward Death: From the Middle Ages to the Present (The Johns Hopkins Symposia in Comparative History) (Paperback)

A fantastic read - both brief and accessible as well as informative and challenging. Phillipe Aries' seminal study of how the treatment of death and dying has changed dramatically in Western Civilization should provoke the reader to think about death as more than something to be avoided, but something to be anticipated.

In American culture obsessed with youth, death has been shoved into the closet to be peeked at only when absolutely necessary. We deny our own mortality, hiding our advancing years with surgeries and fad diets and fashion and promiscuity. Effectively, we are completely un-equipped to handle death, whether someone else's or our own. We not only don't wish to think about it, we can't. It's hidden, and we are supposed to deny ourselves even the visible grief which a true loss of any kind merits. We are often expected to be more emotional about a damaged vehicle or a bad meal or a rude person in traffic than we are when dealing with the death of a loved one.

Read and learn. Read and re-evaluate the wisdom of such intentional ignorance, and what you might wish to do differently for yourself and for those around you whenever the time comes to shuffle off this mortal coil.